More than 70 years after their deaths, a government tribunal held a public hearing to help determine the appropriate recognition for the soldiers' actions.

Relatives and comrades of the POWs spoke of the horrors of internment and its effect on families back in Australia before the five-member Defence Honours and Awards Appeals Tribunal in Canberra on Wednesday.

Survival rates were low as escapees faced thick jungle, dysentery, isolation and Japanese patrols.

Sandakan survivor Leslie Glover told the hearing the men on the list who tried to escape the notorious Borneo camp "knew the danger and they took that risk".

The 95-year-old, who was in the 2/26th Infantry Battalion and captured when Singapore fell, met several of the soldiers listed and heard meetings where troops discussed escape plans.

He told the hearing by phone that Australian officers advised against escaping, but the soldiers were set on escaping the hellish conditions and rejoining Allied forces.

"I saw it as like Diggers in World War I running at the enemy with a couple of grenades," he said.

"They were brave and they were gallant. We pointed out that the chances of escaping were very, very low so they knew the risks."

Mr Glover kept a shorthand diary during his time at Sandakan, which was translated into English and published as The Boy From Bowen: Diary of a Sandakan POW decades after the war.

He was transferred to Kuching as punishment when guards discovered a forbidden radio system, meaning he missed the death marches at Sandakan.

The tribunal also heard from June Fowler-Smith, the niece of Private Sidney Webber.

Private Webber escaped from the second death march from Sandakan to Ranau in June 1945 as Japanese guards hid from Allied aircraft.

Out of the five-person escape party, only Gunner Owen Campbell survived.

After his rescue, Gunner Campbell said a Japanese soldier hidden in a passing boat shot Webber dead.

Ms Fowler-Smith, who was six when her uncle was deployed, met Gunner Campbell after the war and gained a greater insight into Private Webber's conduct.

She said she appreciated the acknowledgment the tribunal had given to the POWs after decades.

"[Private Webber] was like a second father to me... I'm the last one left who can speak for him," she said.

"He was a fine character of a man, a much loved uncle, brother and son."

The Department of Defence provided their submissions to the inquiry on Wednesday to help determine the criteria soldiers would need to match in order to be recognised.

A similar inquiry in 2010 recommended that 20 men killed while escaping imprisonment in World War II be awarded the Commendation for Gallantry.

The tribunal will hold more public hearings from late February to April next year, though dates and locations have not been set.

Deliberations are due to begin in mid-2017.